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Briefs, Feb. 8, 2013

Riverside Educational Center is in need of volunteer tutors for its after-school tutoring program, especially those who can help students in kindergarten through 12th grade, one to three hours per week.

Volunteer training is set for 9 a.m.–10:30 a.m. Saturday at Riverside Educational Center, 552 W. Main St.

A lecture titled “The Race to Space: U.S. Unmanned Space Flight” will be presented by Alan Conrad at 7 p.m. Feb. 14, at the Whitman Educational Center, 248 S. Fourth St.

Conrad is retired from the Caltech/NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. His presentation will provide insight into the technical and human components of exploration efforts of unmanned spacecraft missions, which set the stage for the U.S. becoming the leader in robotic space exploration.

Cost is $5 for members of either the Museum of Western Colorado or the John McConnell Math and Science Center. Nonmembers will be admitted for $10.

Call 261-8137 for information.

Snowmobile Club to have poker run

The Rifle Snowmobile Club is preparing for the 20th Annual Poker Run scheduled Feb. 17 on the Flat Tops.

Parking is available at the Rifle Creek Trail Head and at West Elk Creek Trail heads. Hands will be sold at one hand for $6 or four hands for $20 at Rifle Creek Trail Head and at Corral Park (Station 5) beginning at 9:30 am. Hands will not be sold after 1 p.m.

All hands must be turned in by 2:30 p.m. at Corral Park. Prize money will be given starting at 3 p.m. There will also be door prizes donated by local business.

Corral Park will also have chili, hot dogs, hamburgers, hot chocolate and coffee available. Donations can be made for food.

Proceeds from the poker run help pay expenses associated with trail grooming for recreational purposes. For information, call Carelton at 625-0134 or Carla at 876-5225.

Workshop for small acreage landowners

Bookcliff, Mount Sopris and South Side Conservation Districts are sponsoring a workshop for small acreage landowners who are interested in backyard farming and sustainability.

The workshop, happening Feb. 23 at the Glenwood Springs Community Center in Glenwood Springs, will address cooperative grazing for small acreages; water-wise landscaping; beekeeping in western Colorado; On the Wild Side — wildlife rehabilitation; seed banking; ditch rights for small acreages; and fruit trees and small berries.

DENVER — The head of the National Rifle Association says he’s confident that Congress won’t approve an assault weapons ban or an ammunition limit in the wake of mass shootings in Colorado and Connecticut.

David Keene called such gun control proposals “feel-good” measures that he says “won’t do any good.”

Keene is in Denver to meet with Colorado’s Democratic governor and state lawmakers. He met with The Associated Press for an interview before sitting down with state officials.

Keene says universal background checks are popular with politicians but won’t work. He says current background check systems are underfunded, and that requiring background checks on private sales would be a logistical mess.

Keene says that Congress and the states should focus on improving the existing background-check database.

Denver mom shot 3 kids, killed herself

DENVER — Police say a woman killed herself in a Denver home after shooting and killing two of her young children and critically wounding a third.

The surviving child was hospitalized Thursday in a deep coma.

Relatives have told Denver media outlets the woman quarreled Tuesday night with her husband, who left their home to cool off.

Family members say the husband returned home Wednesday morning and found the bodies.